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Every Thursday evening at 8pm the Crew of 146.985 W3GMS/R get together on air to host a weekly informal net with varying hosts and topics
Good evening. It's 08:00. It's Thursday, and it's time for the Thursday night roundtable here on the w three GMS repeater located in Parksburg, Pennsylvania on a frequency of one forty six decimal nine a five, and the PL tone is 100 hertz. My name is Phil. My call is 3.
That's kilo Charlie three, Charlie India bravo, and I will be the the host tonight for tonight's Thursday night round table. For those that use tone squelch, if your rig is capable, the that frequency is or that PL tone is 94.8. And I encourage you to take a look at the repeater's website at www.w3gmsrepeater.com. Lots of great information on there. Lots of, technical articles and stuff like that.
If you'd like to submit an article to be included in the website, you'd either send them to, myself, k c three c I b, or Tim a f three z. Both our emails are good on QRZed. So if you have any comments or suggestions or anything for the roundtable, you can also email Jim or myself, and put in your suggestions there. Okay. There's also the Monday night workbench here on the repeater.
That is Monday nights at 8PM. That is the place to ask your technical questions and to, lots of good, good people on that net and try and try and stump them. But, it's good, good it's a good place for asking, technical questions, operational questions, and stuff like that. Okay. The round table is as it is as it as the description is, it's a round table.
We pass the mic from person to person. So as people are checking in, I encourage you to write down the list of people people checking in and especially the person checking in after you so you know who to pass who so you know who to pass it off to. Let's see. We usually start with a question, to get the conversation started, and then, you can do whatever you want. After that, you can answer that question or you can bring up another subject, anything.
Like I said, this is a very informal informal session. The repeater has occasional intermod interference. I encourage everyone to run the highest power that they are capable of so you get a good good signal into the repeater. And there is also the digital modes that are accessible into the repeater, echo Lincoln All Star. On the website, there is information on that, but you'll need to send Joe w three g m s an email to be put on the white list, the, the list of approved users.
So, let's see here. When you hit your push to talk, wait about one second and then start talking. Takes about half a second for the, for the repeater to to process and recognize your PL tone. So if you just, click your PTT, just wait a second then start talking. That way we won't miss, say, like, the first, prefix of your call sign.
The repeater also has a three minute time out timer, and all you have to do is let up on your push to talk real fast and then get right back in it. You there's no need to let the repeater drop, something like this. And get right back in on your push to talk, and then you can you got another three minutes. Okay. So tonight's question is, what antenna are you currently using for two meters?
Like, what antenna are you currently transmitting on? And then spinning off of that question, what antenna would you recommend to someone, and would it be your current antenna choice? So that's something, you know, if there's a other antenna that, you try or you'd you'd, have experience with that you would recommend to somebody, I think, people would be very interested to hear what everybody's current current antennas and what your recommendation would be. So at first, we will take, short time check ins, and then I will go to our regular regular check ins, those that can stay around for a while. Again, this is KC through CIB.
And, normally, when we call up, we call up for our digital stations first and then, and then we call for regular RF RF check ins. Please leave a pause between transmissions, maybe three seconds. There is a little bit of latency on on the digital modes, so, just allows the people using digital to hear all all of the transmissions, and it also gives them an opportunity to break in. So we will get things going here. At this time, I will call for short time digital echo link or all star check ins only.
Short time, please. Please call. Okay. Hearing nothing for digital short time check ins RF short time check ins. Please call.
Eddie, short time check ins digital or RF. Please call. 3 Thank you, Charlie. Since we only have Charlie and three CRE, we'll go to our regular check ins. Digital.
Regular check ins. Digital only, please. Call KC three c I And I think everybody's worn out from the heat today. Okay. Any check ins for tonight's Thursday night round table?
Please call KC three c I b. Whiskey alpha three Victor echo echo w a three v e e. W eight c r w. K c three s q I w three g m s. And A3CW.
K. 300 3 See if I got it. K. Okay. So far, I acknowledge gen three, ZRE, w a three, v e e, Ron, w eight, c r w, z r, k c three, s q I, Wayne, w three, g m s, Joe, n a three, c k 3, o OK, Bill, N A F 3 Z Jim.
Any additional stations wishing to check-in to tonight's Thursday night roundtable, please call. K. Late night tonight. I just had me worried. I had to look at the clock and look at the calendar and make sure it was Thursday.
And it was 08:00. So, very good. So our list as we have it, as I went through it already, myself, KC3CIBN3CREE Charlie, W A 3 VEE, W 8 CRW, K C 3 SQI, W 3 GMS, N A 3 CW, K C 3 O O K and AF3Zed. And Charlie did, check-in in the short time, short time check ins. So, Charlie, if you could just confirm, on your transmission that you will only be in for the first round, and then, that will be that will be, sufficient.
So, Charlie, what antenna are you currently using for two m, and what antenna would you recommend to someone, and would it be your current your current antenna? Over to you, Charlie. N three c r eight. This is KC three CIB in the Thursday night roundtable. Well, I have to tell what the, what the leader of the group recommended, and that's the Diamond x 300 a.
I had it installed because I didn't wanna climb up and do it, but, the installation went good and, it's been working very well. I think it hits the repeater good, and, I am very happy with Joe's recommendation, and I would recommend it also. That's the Diamond x 300 a. K. Sounds good, Charlie.
And if Joe recommended it, there's a lot of, lot of experience and knowledge behind behind that recommendation. So very good. Go ahead, Ron. WA three VEE. It's KC3CIB.
Good, Phil. Thank you so much for running the, net tonight. KC3CIB WA 3 VEE with the group here. All very good. Again, I'd like to remind folks, just make a couple of announcements before I get to the questions, Pottstown Area Amateur Radio Club meeting tomorrow night's nice cream social at 07:00.
I know this is quite a bit of travel for some people. It's up in Limerick. If you need directions, let me know. I'm good on QRZed. Be nice to do a showing up there, since we're inviting them to our field day.
And, I'm going to go up with George. George is going to George and I are going to meet at the Wawa, on the way, let's just say, and we're going to, he's gonna ride up with me, and we're going to do a presentation, very informal, of course, basically literally invite folks there in person. We'll be in person, obviously. We'll invite them to our field day and emphasize that we don't necessarily only want you to visit, but also to pull up a chair and operate. We wanna have no radio left behind.
So anyway, that's a reminder there. 07:00 in, Limerick tomorrow night. Details, if you want on QRZed via my email. But George and I will be representing nine eight five for sure. Okay.
Boy, great question Phil. Excellent. So get right to it here finally. You're listening to me on an LIC 9,700 right now fed with a Heil PR, 40 broadcast microphone that is going through a tube MP amplifier courtesy of Joe. And Joe, again, many thanks for that.
It is used every time the station is here. That 12 a x seven a, I think it is in there, has, has a lot of hours on the filament by now. So and that is feeding an x 300. Now the 9,700 has a dual output, so and the X3 the Diamond X300NA, it's an end connector on the 300 out there in the backyard. It only it's a dual band antenna, so it takes one coax connection.
So there is a triplexer on the back of this, of this rig. So the x 300 is the main station antenna for BHF and UHF right now. And from here, I can hit over 40 repeaters on VHF and on two meters and 70 centimeters with that antenna. I would recommend it, for existing HAMS or HAMS who want to, let's just say, upgrade, and I'll explain that in a moment. Standby.
I would, also recommend if they really want any more gain omnidirectionally, the X510, which would be the next antenna up that I would put here. I think Diamond makes a pretty pretty generally a pretty good antenna. This one's been up there for almost ten years. It's due for some maintenance and some performance evaluation. I'm looking at the SWR meter right now.
It's not even moving on the, on the, 9,700 right now. So all is good. For new HAMS, those with Balfangs, what I would recommend against is trying to even think about using the Balfang antennas to try to access reliably access any repeater unless you're in the repeater parking lot, so to speak. So for them, what I would recommend worked very well for Steve, k c three y s m, who, by the way, is haling hardy. He's just been busy with a lot of other things.
Spoke to him at great length yesterday on the cell band, let's say. I would recommend a cookie sheet and a mag mount and a stretch of coax antenna and adapter to get on the HT. Find out if you like amateur radio, get into a local repeater, and then let's talk seriously about some other antennas. But that's relatively inexpensive. It may get them into a local repeater if they're not too far away with somewhat of a decent signal at five watts, but that's about it.
And so I think that's the questions right there. So let me turn it over to CR and, see what CR has to say. W a c r w w a three v e e. Thanks, Ron. Phil, good to hear you.
Thanks for taking the chair tonight. And let's see. Good evening all. Well, I'm not in that same class. Back when I was a young guy, I didn't know any better.
So I bought a Comet GP three, and I have no complaints. It's been up about six or seven years. It works great. I can hit the repeater with no issue whatsoever. So maybe when it's worn out, I'll move up, and, I'll think about that.
Wayne, pick it up. KC3SQIWHCRW. Thank you, CR WHCRW. This is KC three SQI. Okay.
For my base station here, I have a Diamond x 300. If you can't quite, spring the money for that, the 200 is very, very close. Works very well. The only, problem I had with it was the mallet mast for it. Don't use PVC.
I can tell you that. And, but the antenna survived that, fairly well. For the mobiles, I have a Comet SSB and a Hustler on the truck. So, both of those seem to do a pretty good job. And with that, I will turn it over to the owner here, W3GMS.
This is KC3SQ SQI. Very good, Wayne, and good evening all. Phil, thanks for sitting in the captain's chair tonight, driving the bus. Leon may be on his, trip. I know he and Jean were gonna go out to Colorado, and maybe somebody knows their schedule.
But, I haven't heard him here for, a little while. Nine eight five. Okay. To your question, Phil, the let's see here. What am I antenna am I using?
I'm I'm using a mobile antenna on an angle bracket mounted to my rain gutter. Not my downspout, but the rain gutter. And you may ask why do I have such a meager antenna up? Well, the only thing that I work on two meters is my own repeater. And, from where I am to the repeater, it's not a problem.
Full quieting. I think I even cover up the intermod for the most part. However, for, for serious two meter work, I think the Diamond series antennas are very good. Charlie, you got the 300. That's working great.
Ron's been using that for years. A lot of guys I know have the five ten, and they like that. For the split site repeater, I ordered to for the intermod prevention, I ordered a Diamond x 700. It's about a 23 foot stick, and we had a remote base years ago when I was affiliated. The repeater provided communication for another radio group out of Westchester.
And I can tell you that x 700 is an awesome antenna. So for Sirius, it's kind of an overkill for repeaters unless you're using it on a repeater. But it's, it's it's probably the best simplex vertical that I've ever, that I've ever tried over a period of, fifty nine years. But it's it's not, it's not inexpensive. So that's the deal.
What antenna would I recommend? Well, you define what you wanna do first. You just wanna work a couple of local repeaters, in which case you can use a mobile antenna. On the, with the l bracket, the NMOL bracket on the rain gutter. If you wanna reach out greater distance, then I would recommend a 300 or 500.
I don't think you have to go to a 700. If you're interested in long range simplex use, I would highly recommend the x 700. So, that's that. The other thing that I've used here successfully is a little, three element beam pointing towards the repeater. I didn't need the forward gain, but the rejection was really nice because I have a few rigs around here that are old and they don't have tone squelch in them.
And I could not hear any of the repeaters down south. The little three, I think, upgraded to a four element Kushgraph beam, and that worked really well. It was only up about 10 feet pointing right to the, repeater site, and I didn't hear anything else on 985. So that was good. So don't discount a, low cost beam and a little rotator.
You could just use an antenna TV rotator. If you wanna work point to point communication. Not around, you know, not, not in a round table where you have people all over the place, but when you talk to wanna talk to one repeater in a given direction or you wanna talk to one person on Simplex in a given direction. So that's my input on that. Let's see.
Round two, I have some field day announcements that I wanna make, but I'm gonna hold it, that for now. And, Wayne, I did wanna mention you gave me a, a radio, two meter radio box, cardboard box, and I think you that you thought that was for the radio that I bought new that you had given back to me when you didn't need it anymore. But that was actually for a $27.30, and I think you have a $27.30. So I think that's your box. Has a manual in and everything.
So I can bring that to the next, nine eight five breakfast if you're planning to be there. Okay. Let's see. NA3CW. Hopefully, you're not too tired and sore from today's tower at work.
W3GMS. Little pause for the cause. W3GMSNA3CW. Nope. I'm fine.
Some of my upper back muscles are going, but, that's just a little minor fatigue. It's not nothing's broken. So I'm good. Antenna. Well, the antenna on my I have a 40 foot mast in the backyard, and the antenna that's on the top is a lowly Ringo.
Looks like a ski pole. It's a it's an end fed half wave. For again, as Joe brought up, the antenna is, you know, part of a system, and the system is to do a a purpose. And I work nine eight five. Occasionally occasionally, I work you know, I can listen around to other places, but I really, you know, the the time that I have available, I talk to people I know, and that's 985.
And I'm in Parksburg. So from the top of my mast, you probably can't quite see the repeater, but I might as well. I can hit the repeater with a ground level, stubby duck on an HT. So I don't need a lot of antenna to talk to 985. If I had if I, were were intending to do something longer range, I would do something different.
Hang on. However, yeah, the Ringo works fine. It's it's, let's see. Whatever it's good points. It's practically indestructible.
It's just a piece of tubing with a cap on the end, and it's in a clamped clamped into a, a base that, it's molded into. And, unless you, you know, hit it with something large, heavy, and high speed, it's just indestructible. And so it's been up there for I've been at this house seventeen years, and it's been up there probably fifteen of it. And, works just fine. SWR is low.
It's stable. It does, does does what I need. As Joe brings up, there are simple antennas that can be very effective and very cheap. One that's often overlooked is, I've never been a big fan of the, the JPAUL, but I I am a big fan of the ground plane. A quarter wave two meter ground plane was made out of a, s o two thirty nine, how does s o two thirty eight?
No. No. Two thirty nine. S o two thirty nine, coax connector with some bus wire or brazing rod is a very effective antenna. It's easy to tune.
It works really well, and it costs next to nothing. And, very easy to make. Very easy to make. So, yeah, if you wanna do something more exotic, then you get up into the bit more exotic antennas. But, for hitting the local repeater, some very simple things would work just fine.
So, let's see. Over to complex things that work just fine. K c three o o k n a three c w. N a three c w at k c three o o k. Thanks, Chuck.
Yes. Bill, thanks for taking the chair tonight. It's good to hear everybody on here. I'm currently tonight on the Diamond x five ten, and, I really can't give a recommendation for makes because I've just had diamonds. I started with that, and I have to say they worked very well.
I've had the 50, the 300, and now the, five ten. They all work very well. And as far as new people getting into it, as Chuck said, I'm not a big fan of a JPO either. They have a little bit of gain directionally. But, we need a diamond x 50 if you can pick up three d b a gauge and not spending a lot of money to be able to get out a much, much better signal.
Well, that that's about it for me. I am partial to this this being, but that's a specific purpose. Really doesn't relate to, computer work at all. And, I'm envious of Joe and the 700. I can't wait to see that up in the air and and, listen to it.
So I will turn it over to, it looks like, Jim. You're the tail gunner so far. AF3Zed. K C 3 O O K. Okay.
Thank you very much, Bill. Good evening, everybody. AF3Zed here. And, I have, never had a whole lot here or there, in fact. For many years, I just had a small arrow, dual band ground plane kind of thing, very small thing, type of thing you can make out of a coat hanger and s o two thirty nine.
But there's this commercially made. But I do live, for the obviously, most everybody here probably knows I live pretty far out. 30 some miles, I guess. And, I got in with that little antenna, but not too well. And, thanks to Joe's help and recommendation.
I have a Cushcraft four element yagi mounted for vertical polarization. And it's up about 10 to 15 feet, not real high, but on a little mast in the edge of the house. It's the model number is one two four w b whiskey bravo, one twenty four whiskey bravo, push craft. So a little two meter beam and that, helped helped pick me up here. And, it's aimed roughly at the repeater.
I just used a bearing from QRZed and, and then my the compass on my cell phone, and I set it up that way, but it gets me in. And I hit all the local repeaters as well without turning it. I don't have a rotor on it. I can go out and rotate it. Armstrong method, but, I haven't rotated since I put it in.
But all the local repeaters, I get in anyway without having problems. So that's it for me. And, Phil, thanks for running the show here tonight. And, yeah, the heat or something's gotten into us. We've had a few smaller groups since since the weather started getting nice.
So back to you, Phil. A f three z here. Okay. Thanks, Jim. Are there any additional stations wishing to check-in to tonight's Thursday night roundtable?
Please call KC three CIB. KC three YIG. This is Dave in Lancaster. Okay, Dave. KC three y I g.
Any other stations? Please call. Dave, I take it you heard the questions, but if you didn't let me know, well, I'll just go through them anyway. What antenna are you currently using? And then what antenna would you recommend to someone?
And would it be your current antenna? Those are the questions. So over to you, Dave. K c three y I g. This is k c three CIB in the Thursday night roundtable.
K c three CIB. This is KC3YIG. Yeah. I I think I picked up for Joe, was providing his insights on the antennas. And then we went to Chuck, and, Chuck described the one that I use quite well.
I couldn't do a better job myself. I made my quarter wave ground plane out of an s o two thirty nine chassis connector and some leftover wires from, housing wire. And it's up in the top peak of my attic, and I think, you know, I've never heard anybody complain. So I think I'm doing a pretty good job with it. So, I hit the repeaters that I wanna hit, and, so, yeah, I'm pretty happy with that.
And, as far as what I would recommend, that's the only thing I've got experience with. So, some of the suggestions others have made, I think, works for me. So I'll, turn it back to the net, and, good to hear everybody tonight. Hey, Dave. Thanks.
Thanks for your input, and good hearing you as well. Any additional stations wishing to check-in to tonight's Thursday night roundtable, please call. Alpha alpha three Lima Hotel. Okay. We got Leon.
Sounds like you're digital, Leon. Where are you? Over to you, Leon. A a three l h k c three c I v. Alright.
Yeah. We've been traveling, and we we got back today. So now we're back. I'm used to just using the the day tomorrow mode this evening. What I usually do is I I I have an oddball antenna apparently.
I have, for my base for two meters, a high gain. I believe it's a sixty thirty five vertical antenna. Like a big run sticking up in the air where it's kinda run planish with with the radials at the bottom. And that's what we have. And do I recommend it?
Well, I yes. I I kinda like that real well. It's worked out with there for years and never had a problem with it. So that's well, like, I would recommend it if if they still make it. I got it kind of a Hamfest special.
Somebody wanted to get rid of it. I needed a two meter base, and we got together on it. And, I think it cost, like, 5 or $10, and I put it up. It's up, and we just kinda like it. And I do recommend it if the if anybody wants it.
I'm not sure it's made anymore because it appears to be a very old antenna. But, it has this number on it. I've been with I was $60.35 for a high gain. And the next time we go west, it will it will be next month. We will be here for the field day and going all beside.
We we plan on being here then doing all that. Alright. Back to net control. It's three zero eight. K.
Thank you, Leon. Any additional stations wishing to check-in, please call. Yeah. Well, I will answer the questions. The current antenna that I am using is a Comet GP nine.
I guess it's similar in specs to the x five ten. It's, 18 and a half feet. I got it on a 10 foot mast mounted to my, to a fence. So it's, the tip of it is pretty much, 28 feet 28 and a half feet off the ground. They do have a secondary station upstairs, that is hooked to a Cush Carat, I think.
I think it's a Cush Carat, the little cheap three element beam that you can buy. It is not on a rotator. I have it mounted in the attic, pointed at the repeater. That is my bad weather, antenna. So if it's lightning and stuff, I don't I don't worry about lightning strikes.
You can still it can still come through your power lines, but I don't don't worry about that. If it if that happens, you got more things to worry about. Would I recommend the TP nine to somebody? I would. But, I think the diamonds diamond brand of antennas seem to be more popular.
I've never owned a diamond antenna, so I would not know even though it seems most people here are using, diamond. Diamond branded antenna seem to be the the the popular brand here on the repeater. At least tonight it is. So coming into the coming into our second round, I got a question for you guys. So, Leon, your signal was 100 copyable.
We heard every single word. But I just wanna what what are we hearing on Leon's signal? If if if I had to explain it, I would tend to say that it's that it's clipping on peaks. Maybe from being a little too, a little too hot. So, if anybody wants to comment on that, I'd really be interested, in hearing comments on that for our second round.
And so our list for the second round, possibly N 3 C R E Charlie, And then W a three VEE, W h c r w, k c three s q y, w 3G M s, n a three c w, k c three o o k, a f three z, k c three y I g and then Leon, a a three l h. So, Charlie, m three c r e, are you still with us? Okay. I thought he was meant to be on the short time list, but I just thought I'd give a call out. So so, Ron, over to you.
And then if, you know, if anybody indulges on somebody else's comment on signal, especially, on these digital, on these digital modes because she hears some some different things on people's signals, and that's I've, I don't think I've encountered the one where it's actually, like, sounds like it's clipping on peaks. So, Ron, over to you. W a three VEE k c three CIB. Very good, Phil. K c three CIB w a three VEE.
Yeah. It does sound like Ileana is clipping on the peaks, at least at least to me, but I'm not a an Ecolinc expert at all. But Ecolinc has limitations to begin with. So it's pretty finicky. The biggest thing with Ecolinc is the key on, the push to talk and the deactivation of that and also losing it when you're dropping a sell signal.
Not much other comments I have from this end. I'm gonna listen out here, but I will say seven three, but like I just said, I'll listen out. But, the only thing I would add on antennas is if you really want to work a lot of other repeaters, I would recommend the Beam. Yeah. Those are those are those are those are, pretty good as well.
So, two twenty also, not to be forgotten, there are a number of of two meter and u, 70 centimeter, and also there are a number a number of two twenty repeaters around. If anyone wants any information anybody wants any information on that, email me or contact me. I'll I'll let you know. But, they're also they're also reachable. For the most part, the repeaters I work here are the ones I have friends on in Delaware, that's the DRA, the W3DRA repeater, Delaware Repeater Association, which I was a member many, many years ago.
In fact, an officer in the seventies when I first got into ham radio. We put a couple of repeaters on the air down there and they're still on the air. And so, friends down there, I've VE with those guys as well. So I I work those repeaters. The Delaware City repeater is outstanding.
It's a UHF machine on 448,825 with a negative five megahertz offset, and you can get it up here. If you have a really good antenna, again, with VHF, UHF, elevation is height as might. So that's the other thing. If you're going to put an outside antenna up, make sure you can get it as high as possible. Then there are a number of, the Red Rose repeater over in Lancaster.
It's a good two meter machine. They also have a four forty machine and also the Pottstown folks, and I'll be on that with George tomorrow night from the Porcupine van, from the VEE Porcupine. So, and also I'll be on their two twenty machine on the way up there as well, also workable from the van. Anyway, that's enough for me, and, we'll say seven three and hopefully hear, as many people as possible on the Zoom call 07:00 Saturday night for field day. Those have expressed an interest to Joe.
So over to you, Sierra, w a c r w w a three v e e seven three. Pretty good, Ron. Phil, am I making it? PC three CIB WHCRW. Just about to call out for you, CR.
For the second round, I switched antennas. This is a, Comet again. It's an SSB Dash224. It's a tri bander for what Ryan was just talking about on the, two twenty band. So it also does two, two meters and 70 centimeters, but this one's on a pole about 15 feet in the air.
And, I think it hits the repeater. And I'll say 73 to all, and I also will be listing out. Wayne, your turn. KC3SQIWHCRW. Thank you, WHCR, WHCRW.
This is KC three SQI. Joe, I cannot find the 2300 box. With everything moved around down here with our guests, I don't know where it ended up. So, that's not, not good, but it's the truth. And so, yeah, I do have two twenty seven thirties.
I have one in the car and the other one's sitting here in front of me and, 7,100 in truck. So and like Ron was saying, the, Delaware City repeater, I have no problems hitting them with any of my molds from my home. But Okay. The other antenna that I use sparingly is an Elk River, four element, tri band. And that one, I've had no problems with.
It gets where I need to go, and it's light. It's small, and it's not expensive. So okay. With that, I will turn it over to Joe, w three g m s. This is KC3SQI.
Yeah. Very good. Wayne, KC three s q I. This is W3GMS, Ursula, PA. Y'all I'll just bring the $27.30 a box back.
I don't sweat the other one. It it's not necessary. You know, if you ever come across it, fine. If not, no sweat. But I wanna I want you to get it back because I have a twenty seven thirty, but I have my own box and my own instructions.
And it's a fantastic rig. The twenty seven thirty is one of my favorite or the my favorite, two meter four forty rig. Although, I never use it on four forty, at all. But I love it because it has split PL, and it just, it just works very well. And it's the best thermal cooling design I've ever seen in a rig that runs this much power.
It's just barely lukewarm regardless of how long you talk. Okay. Some field day updates. With Martha's help, we got the spreadsheet all organized, and that went out to everybody. There's a cutoff date for the spreadsheet of tomorrow at 05:00 to let me know, are you coming?
Are you not coming? If you're coming, put some x's in it. So, I think everybody has gotten it by now. If you have problems with the Excel spreadsheet, just look at it, and then you can just tell me in words what you're gonna do, and I'll fill in the spreadsheet for you. But, Wayne, we need your inputs.
Are you gonna do any operating? Are you gonna help? Do you wanna work CW, sideband, digital, or satellite? And then there's another column that says Saturday. I just need to know approximate.
None of this is carved in stone, but the hours you're gonna operate for Saturday and Sunday. And then there's another one we call it station manager equipment. And, but you can put anything you want in there. If you're not gonna be a station manager, just, just put stuff in there. Like, Chuck put go to coach in there.
So here's the folks that I'm missing. I'm missing inputs from you, Wayne, Rob, w three o m w, Tom, k c three t m t, and I haven't talked to, Tom on the air in a very, very long time. I have I I think he was planning to come up and take George's place on cleanup detail, on Sunday because George, our chairman, will not be on on Sunday. But I've had zero communications from Tom about the spreadsheet and filling anything in. Same with Steve.
I haven't talked to Steve on the air probably in two months. K c, three y t d. Travis, nothing back from Travis. Let's see who else do we have. George MWR, and I haven't heard anything back from Stephanie.
So, my real question first order question is, are you still gonna come? And, if you're gonna come, you know, and fill in what you can on the spreadsheet. Item number two, I've sent the, nine eight five Excel spreadsheet that I just described to, Mel Melody, k b three s j r, who's the secretary of the Puckstown Area Radio Group because there's quite a number of folks that do plan to attend our field day, and I want them to put their information on this sheet as well. And it'll also give them a good idea of the activity and the operators and things like that. And, don't be concerned where you see all these operators and figure out, I'm not gonna have a chance to operate.
Guarantee, you will have a chance to operate. There's just no question about it. If we gotta boot somebody if we gotta boot somebody off, we gotta boot them off. So, anyway, that's the deal on that. So far, we have, 21 people that have filled out the spreadsheet and no response from eight.
So, there's mister Mike calling on the phone. And, I wonder why he's calling me on the phone. He should be on the radio. Anyway, that's that on that. So, I understand.
I heard you say, Chuck, you and, George are gonna go up for the the social on Friday. I will not be able to do that. Just been way too busy, way too committed, and I wanna wanna relax a little bit. But I thank you for going up there, and, I'll keep people posted on, how many people intend to operate from the Pottstown area amateur radio group here. I think it's gonna be a banner field day.
There's been a change in long term weather forecast. They were calling for rain on Saturday and Sunday, but now the rain is no more. Temperatures, I think, are into the mid mid to upper eighties, but no rain. So it may be hot, but, we'll do the best we can. I don't think I got anything from, did I get anything from Luke?
I don't even see Luke on this list. S c y. Now I drop Luke off the list. So I gotta put Luke back on the list because I know he's coming, but, he's not on this Excel spreadsheet. That's it for me.
Seven three all, and, Chuck and Bill, we'll see you tomorrow morning, at, 08:00 or thereabout and, put a few hours in some more on the tower. These guys have been doing a tremendous job, getting the tower to the point where it's very, very, ready to stand vertical here in not too long. So that's it. NA3CWW3GMS. 7 3 O.
7 3, Joe. W 3 G M S N A 3 C W. Yeah. We had a a good session this morning. We're gonna do it again tomorrow of, you know, dealing with relatively small but important detail work on the tower and its, its base and its winches and cables and stuff.
So we're we, today, we measured out and cut and installed well, rolled up the, winched up the the main, tilt up cable. And tomorrow, we hope to do the same with, at least one of the vertical, stand up cables as well as a few other things. Bill did, really great job of stabilizing the the the hinge on the base assembly. It's got a great big triangular steel heavy steel welded up, hinge arrangement. And, it was really not stable and, because of its ability to shift position and what it really shouldn't.
And so Bill has fixed that. So, we're cooking. We we adjusted some assemblies on the tower itself to, get certain alignments re required. So now the it rolls in and out just fine, and the, cable, positions are gonna be fine. And, yeah.
So it's like Joe said, it's getting very, very close. Very, very close. And that's great because we all wanna be done with this thing. I know. I do.
Side issue, another issue. It not issue, another item. I've been, I've taken the loan of, a Yaesu FT seven ten from Ron because, he offered several rigs, as candidates to use at the go to station. Since Lam v go to coach, I figured, whatever rig we use, I probably ought to know how to use it because I'm gonna be a coach. So this is the this one is the, the newest and strangest to me.
So I've been playing with it on and off, for several days. And, I know as a receiver, I'm really liking it. The especially on, like, the the received sound quality, even on AM, which is very unusual for a sideband rig. The even the AM is, really, really nice when tuned into a nice AM signal, And, sideband is fine. It's it's very clean and, enjoying that.
Still trying to, only today was the first time I've played with the transmitter and getting used to the controls on it. That first blush, I can say this ain't an AM transmitter. It it can't do AM, but it's we used to be desired, but it sure sounds good on receive, I can tell you. So, yeah, I'm enjoying, just learning this thing, learning the menu structure because, my rig do not have menus except for initial setup. My f t nine twenty is, you know, three times the size, but it's got all the knobs and the buttons so you don't have to use menus.
And this, $7.10 is a teeny tiny thing, so it just does not have acreage of panel space. So I'm learning how to do the menus, and they're really not that bad. So, yeah. I just wanted to be what to the point where I feel that I'm not sitting there in the dark fumbling around trying to, make it do what I wanted to do. So, Ron, again, thanks for, the rehearsal time.
So with that, I will say seven three to the group. And, Bill and Joe, I'll see you again in the morning. And, I have provided Patty's permission to say so. So over to you, Bill. K c three o o k.
This oh, wait a minute. One more thing. We talked about a building a cheap ground plane. You can't hardly get cheaper than that, and it's a very effective antenna. That's the other part of it.
A, a twin lead JPO is cheap, but I'm not really fond of how well they work. Ground planes work really well. The other one that I that is not well known and ought to be is the it's called Cheap Yaggy. And there you can you can, look it up online, Cheap Yaggy. And it's it's an article where this guy wrote up all the dimensions you need to make Aggies for two meters, two twenty, four 40, 12 90 six out of wood and rod and, you know, whip brazing rod, stiff copper wire, what have you.
Hook it up to a piece of coax, and it works. And I have made a couple of these in the past. One of which I made, to do direction interference finding for channel fourteen TV channel fourteen on Guam. I made a special one using the cheap Yagi technique, three element Yagi, and I tracked down a, an offender with it's actually a tele a cell company using this antenna, cheap Yagi. If you ever wanted to play with Yaggis and thought, oh, it's sophisticated, it's hard, it's whatever.
No. These things are really, really easy, and everything you need is sitting in Home Depot. Seven three. K 30 0 3 3 3 0 0 Well, I don't have too much more to add here tonight. I will say the other antenna that, I really like, I use it for portable, but it is a really effective little antenna is that Elk Wob periodic, and it's real light, easy to set up.
That would probably be good for someone that's in a HOA. I know there's some people that actually just set up a little tripod and set it up on their driveway at night if they wanna work and then just take it back in the garage. So, I don't have much more. And, Joe and Chuck, I'll see you in the morning. That's about it for me.
So I'm gonna say 73 and turn it over to Jim, a f three zed. K c three o o k. Very good. Thanks again. And I don't know that I have too much more to add.
Yeah. I didn't answer the part about what I would recommend. This little beam works well for me, the KushCraft. And, otherwise, like I say, I haven't done much in heaven. I've never done I would like to sometime, but I don't have a rig that'll do, like, sideband or CW or anything.
So I've never tried to workstations from farther away. It's always just been a repeater operation for me and a little bit of a little bit of, simplex here and again, but not too much. So, that's that's that for me. And, yeah, I'm kinda out of stuff to say. So, Dave, was that great introduction there to you?
K c three y I g a f three zed. Thanks, Jim. A f three zed. This is k c three y I g. I'll also say that I don't have too much to add.
I appreciate the input from Chuck there and the the yoggies. I've been wanting to, find my hand at one. I was thinking about the the measuring tape one. I actually have some metal rod around the house. Looked like, old elements off of an antenna that I thought maybe I would use.
But with the warmer weather, there's too many other things going on right now for me to, get into the construction mode. Plus my son bought a house, and I've been painting like a painting full over the last week. So, yeah, my time's busy. But, anyways, it was great talking with everybody or hearing everybody tonight, and, great to be part of the roundtable. And I will then pass it on to Leon, a a three l h.
This is k c three y I g. Well, thank you. YG. Thanks so much. This is alpha alpha three Lima Hotel with the clipping, Echo Link, I guess, I'm on here tonight.
Oh my. I don't have a whole lot more to have, but Joe can tell us we'll we'll be there Sunday morning somewhere around for the field day somewhere around 08:30 ish and make breakfast and stay there and make lunch. Since I'm helping my wife do that, if I have time to play radio, I will find an empty slot. And I'm not willing to sit there and help my wife with the food on Sunday. That that is an important thing.
It's because I'm clipping, but I hope I'm not gonna be clear it is. I tell you what. I have a Moseley four element two meter beam here that I can take, and travel with at times when I travel. But around here, I do use my high gain or as I'm doing tonight using Echo Link tonight because I, I kinda work as we come back from traveling and I'm tired and don't really care to sit at the shack and run my radios. So I can sit back here and relax on my cell phone and talk to you guys.
Phil, my echo clipping, my signal improve any, or or or does that does does this computer clip on or does that echo link clip on? What do you think it is, Phil? Alright. Back to back to Net Control, a a three o h. K.
Thanks, Leon. And, yes, you're still clipping, but still 100%, 100% copy. And I don't know don't know what it is. So, hopefully hopefully, you figure that out. Maybe it's, just some Internet lag or something.
It could be as well. So, any other stations wishing to check-in to tonight's Thursday night roundtable where we shut things down, please call. K. We had a double there. I heard a KC three call, and then, there was a double.
So, let's try it again. 3 3 And double, you're three j a m. Jeff here in Northern Chester County, a little bit further out, so I probably got clobbered on the double. K. Yes.
Sean Sean Sean, I made out the the KC three, and you were just, you were just noise on top of that. Yeah. So, over to you, Sean. K c three z l I. We're talking about antennas.
What antenna are you currently using? And, spin off of that, what antenna would you recommend to someone, and would it be your current antenna choice? So you can comment on that or you or you don't have to. Over to you, Sean. This is KC three, CIB.
KC three, ZIB. This is, KC three is the Eli, Sean. I'm at I would have to look up, one antenna I bought. It's just a pretty basic antenna, off Amazon, but it's for, two meters and 70 centimeters. But, it's been, doing me well to hit the repeater enough, here.
It's it's not as high as I need it, but, it's just on a on a, a pole in my backyard by my house, and, I don't I don't have the knowledge yet about our intended to recommend anything for anybody, but, this one's been serving me well to hit the repeater, that's for sure. So, because before that I had a, a mobile that I was just putting on a, a piece of metal as a ground plane and, I was hitting it then, but, yeah, one of my goals for the summer is to, get my antenna situation figured out a little bit more so I, you know, can get out there, probably hook this one up to the house at some point a little bit higher and then get my, HF antenna, situation figured out, so, but, yeah, this one's been working out so far to get to the repeater, and, I there's some other local repeaters that I haven't checked in on, but I've I've been they've been coming in fairly fine. So, I don't know what it is, but I, I bought it off Amazon earlier in the year. So I don't have much more to add to that, and I completely forgot who the other check-in was, and I apologize for that.
So I will pass it to you a long concern. Very good. No worries. W three j a m Jeff here. And, Phil, I, was glad you put out a final call there or one more call because I was hoping I could get on the log tonight.
I am, literally just arrived home from, our final choir choir practice of the year, wherein I see I have a few, few things to work on before Sunday high high, but, all good. Anyway, the the antenna I'm using now is, is one I like very much. It's a diamond, dual band antenna, and it's, basically three five eights waves three five eights wave, elements or sections phased. It's vertical antenna, of course. And, it's got some decent gain.
And I don't really have it up as high as I'd like since it's on the back of, of my barn or Studio B as I call it, wherein this muffet just showed up. But, it it works out pretty well for me out here, and I normally run it with either this rig, which is, the eight fifty seven d that I got from Joe three GMS, as well as my, Yaesu thirty one eighty five, which is an 85 watt single band two meter rig. So it tends to work out pretty well, and I like the antenna a lot. It's, I believe, eight five eights wave elements on, 70 centimeters, so it does fairly decently on, on UHF. The the height is is only at about 27 feet.
The top of the antenna is about 17 feet or 18. I forget the the overall height of the antenna, 17 or 18 feet, give or take. I'd rather have something at 50 feet, and then you've got something when you can, get a a two meter 70 centimeter antenna at that height. But that's, that's I'm working on that. Let me drop it here a second.
And for, for many years, I only ran on two meters. I ran, over in Studio A, which has been we're doing a lot of cleanup in the house. So and and I've never liked the temporary ham shack in there, which I've been running for using, successfully, but, not really not really maintainable or a very good operating position for about the last fifteen years or so. So I have decommissioned it, taken it all down, and I'm gonna be getting rid of some stuff and even, changing out the cables and things. And I'm gonna be building studio a backup from the ground.
And the, the antenna in Studio A, in addition to the antenna, is to have an operating position that is convenient, comfortable, where you can sit down and and actually operate. I I could never not since I lived in Delaware County have I been able to sit down and operate, and that includes out here in the Studio B. But, makes it interesting, so much for the, the old buzzer transmissions. But, hopefully, get that built up and and get something that's, operable and maintainable. That's the main thing, being able to change stuff out, get that stuff in the back of breaks, and and change cables out if I need to, do what have you, whatever.
Whatever needs done. And naturally with the the blueprint for what I wanted in Studio A. But the antenna setup out there in Studio A is gonna gonna also be, I'm also gonna, put a five ten up. And that will be my omnidirectional two meter 70 centimeter antenna, but then I'm also going to, add to it, probably put my, I have an FM Boomer that I have, assembled but just not installed anywhere. I'm gonna take one of the 13 element Yaggis and put that up as well for two meter FM work.
So I'll have omnidirectional and, directional antenna. I also have a Yagi, an 18 element m squared antenna that I've had for quite a while. I may, repurpose that for FM work. I've I've had that horizontally polarized for years. Horizontal and vertical polarization for VHF, UHF work because I do have the, the 9,700 all mode rig.
And before that, I had my Kenwood seven ninety, which was, also a, tri band all mode rig, one of the, had a really great receiver in it too, by the way, which I, kinda gave that rig to my buddy, WB three g u s down in Gaithersburg. Right? I'm sorry. North Potomac, Maryland. Anyway, long story short, the other thing I'm doing out here, Phil, in terms of antenna work is putting up an off center fed dipole, and I've got the, the end supports up for that.
And I've got everything putting the antenna together. It's partially put together, and I just need to, get it up on the back of Studio B. So that's the next couple of days. Some rain kinda slowed me down on that project. But, hopefully, once I get clear some stuff I have to get done, today, I think most of that got done.
I'll be able to actually, put the OCF up, the off center fed dipole, and that will work for 80 through six meters. So, essentially, out here in Studio B with that setup, I'll have, 80 through 70 centimeters, with the eight fifty seven b, essentially the the the shack in the box, if you will, out here. And, I'll probably take the $31.85 out of service, not use that out here, but just use the eight fifty seven, for, HF, VHF, and UHF work. And I'll have the have a an LDG tuner also that I picked up, about a month or so ago that I'll be able to use to tune that, OCF. I prefer dipoles.
I prefer inherently balanced antennas for HF. But, the OCF should work out because I do have the, the Palomar engineer, hybrid, which essentially is a four to one ballon and a one to one ballon or choke, built into it, 1,500 watt, PEP data, hand power handling, which is overkill for out here, but I tend to like to over engineer things high high. Anyway, that's the answer to the question. Phil. I highly recommend the diamond, gain antennas, for for dual band work.
I think, I think, there are knockoffs of it out there, probably three DB lower in price. But a tram comes to mind. I think they have they have a version. Probably knock off three dB from the price tag. Who knows?
But, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Back to you, Phil. Thanks for letting me jump in here. W3JAM. Okay.
Hearing nothing? I will now close the round table, and thanks to thanks Joe for allowing us to use the repeater for the for the workbench and and the round table for both of them and, allowing everyone to use the resource. So at this time, I will close the nine eight five Thursday night round table, and please continue using the repeater if you so wish. This is KC3CIB73. Phil, when you were transmitting before, you said you're enclosed down.
It sounded like somebody doubled with you. AF three zed. That I the antenna I'm using is a tram 1480. K. Thanks, Sean.
Tram 1480. Perfect. Thank you. Jam. No problem.
So, not playing the guitar tonight. I'm sitting here playing with my camera. I have three zed. Yeah. What are you doing what are you doing to a camera?
Just going through the settings and trying things I've never tried. You know, there's all talking about radios and menus, this camera has tons of menus too. So that's what it is. Just tinkering. Very good.
Yeah. I actually, charged up charged up my batteries for my camera. Probably, I don't know. Maybe three weeks ago. I just topped them off and, like, you know, weather's starting to get nice.
I should get out somewhere and haven't haven't found the time to do that yet. Back to you, Jim. Yeah. Well, I'm into my busy camera season with the concerts in the summer. Had the first one last Sunday night, and, that was about 500 or so pictures I took.
Only, really kept 31 of them, I think it was. And, then Monday night was a camera club meeting, and we went somewhere for a photo walk. So I took another hundred or 200 and kept maybe six or seven or something. I don't remember. I didn't keep a whole lot of them.
And so, anyway, yeah, it's gonna be a little busier time for the camera. So that's what got me going here. Over the winter, I didn't do much, but, sorta got me started up again. A f three zed. C c three c I b.
So I remember, you know, taking, you know, 35 millimeter film to the to the photo mat or whatever to get to get developed. You know? There's no way you would take 500 pictures back then and develop them all and throw away 450 of them. You know? I guess you just kinda took a couple shots and, whichever one of the two was the best is is the one you kept.
Right? Yeah. When you think about that, let's see. A 24 exposure roll, four times that would be what? Oh, yeah.
96. So 40 times that would be 960. That's about 20 rolls of film, for a hundred pic. No. I'm getting confused.
500 pictures. And then paying for processing. One thing I realized a while ago, I have a subscription where they do things these days to use the Adobe, Lightroom and also Photoshop, but I don't use Photoshop that much. But, anyway, I have the software subscription, and it sounded kind of expensive, and I don't remember a hundred and $20 a year or something. But if I was shooting film and buying film and developing film, it costs more than paying for that.
So it made me realize, oh, it's not so bad. It was having to pay it all at once. It sounded like the bigger deal. But, pretty fancy software too. Yeah.
Whole photography thing is so say, changed so much. The newer cameras with all the stuff they can do can detect faces. They can, find eyes. Now, Dan, they're not perfect at doing this, but find faces are actually some of them you can set to focus on the left eye or the right eye. You know, it's crazy.
Automatic focus, and that was back in the day. You know, automatic focus was pretty fancy. Most of the time you had to manually focus. AF three zed. Yes.
I don't think I have it anymore, but I had a manual manual SLR. Cheap one. Very, very cheap one. And, and then got my, my entry level DSLR to to play around with. So yeah.
Could you I don't even know what it what it would cost nowadays to get a roll of, 24 exposure, 35 millimeter film developed these days. I guess I guess oh, I guess CBS does it. I don't know. I guess. Staples.
Wait. I guess there's still a need for that. Back to you, Jim. You know anybody that uses, regular film? Hopefully, but I couldn't tell you who.
There are some guys in the camera club, guys and or gals who, do some film stuff. Once upon a time, I looked up what it costs, and some places do process film. I'm not sure where. Maybe drugstores and stuff. And supposedly, it's coming back.
I think it's kinda like vinyl. You know, records are coming back, but most of us aren't buying turntables and playing them. So oh, and, you know, we, from time to time, the camera club and I I am a couple other people, If you get on the, like, the website and you send a message to the contact address that's on there, I think it's contacted lancaster camera club dot org or something like that. I'm one of the ones that gets those emails, and from time to time, somebody says, I have this old equipment. Does anybody want it?
Or they wanna sell it. You know? That's a bigger challenge. But my point is it's hard to get rid of the old film equipment, and so there's not too many people out there doing it. But I had checked into the prices when I was checking out that thing of is paying for Lightroom Anywhere since paying for film.
No. No. It's not. So, yeah, very, very interesting. And, yeah, the whole thing of having a 24 exposure roll of film, Yeah.
I remember reading or seeing a video by one of the National Geographic photographers talking about the film days. Jim Jim Brandenburg might have been his name. And, he was commenting on, you know, when they would go out on location or whatever, and they come back with thousands of rolls of film to develop, I think literally. And, also, he wouldn't know what was on those rolls of film till he got back and had them developed. That's another thing with the digital cameras you can look and I mean, I can't people ask me, did you get any good shots when I'm taking pictures?
And, so I won't know till I see them on the computer, which is true. The little screen on the back really doesn't tell me. And that's one reason for taking a lot. You can miss a lot and still get some good ones. So, but in the old days, they'd go out and take all those pictures.
They didn't know what they had till they got back. Now they were good, which helped them a lot. But, it's almost like radio. Radios didn't always work the way they do now. AF three zed.
Right. Right. Yeah. It's I think you're just a little bit more, a little bit bit more selective. Right?
Knowing, you know, with a DSLR, knowing you could, you know, take 20 shots and then pick the best as opposed to, you know, taking one shot. And then, just hoping that, it's not blurry or or a or a bird's flying flying in the middle of the of the view. So Yeah. This seems like, seems like so long ago, but it actually wasn't that long ago. So it's just, you know, it's just amazing the quality of pictures that you get from just a, just a cell phone nowadays.
K c three c, I think. Yeah. AF three zed with the quality of the cameras and cell phones. When you think back to the good old box cameras, as they call them, and that's basically all they were with a box with a lens on the front. I'd love to ever play with pinhole cameras or even heard of pinhole cameras.
I don't know if I still have them. I used to have some of the old Kodak flyers telling you how to make one. But I did that was probably the first thing I did. But back in that day, coffee came in those round coffee cans, and, they had sort of a twist thing and you you know, it's sort of like pulling the zip off of of something, but you would wind it around the can and it would tear the metal basically to open the can. But you could still close it afterwards.
It had a little lip that was still on there. But, anyway, you take one of those cans and you put a pinhole in the one side of it in the lid. You would, put your paper or film. I used printing paper. I was cheap and didn't have all the chemicals or I don't know.
I just didn't know what to do with film at that point. They put paper in there, and then you do a contact print from that. And so it didn't come out real good as far as resolution and stuff. It was a lot of fun, but your lens is just a pinhole. And it's just a can with a piece of photographic silver paper taped to the back edge back part of the can.
And, I have, like, electric tape over the pinhole, and I would pull it up, and the can would sit there for a minute or two or whatever the exposure was. Not good for sports photography. And then, yeah, I had to pull the tape put the tape back over the pinhole and then take it down and, develop the paper film and see what you got. That was a lot of fun, but that's a far cry far cry from the cell phone cameras of today. What they can do is amazing.
And then the software built into the camera for editing and bunking them up and stuff. Making them funky funky. So, anyway, very interesting stuff. Technology has sort of gone berserk, and cameras have too. A f three zed.
Anybody else out there wanna join in? Yeah. It's it's amazing. I remember I don't know if you showed me. I don't think it was you, but I remember in school, I took a photography class in, let's see.
That would have been, eighth grade. So eighth grade, that would have been probably, like, '78. Yeah. Probably, like, 1978. And, I remember that was one of the things, you know, we did in photography class and, you know, black and white.
Black and white stuff, you know, doing that smelly chemicals and that kind of stuff. It was pretty neat, but, yeah. What a what a leap forward. Right? I think you've come ahead.
Yeah. I looked into the, late Leap. What is it? Leap. Something like in, Photoshop subscription, and, I just I just don't, you know, process enough pictures.
You know? Have download them to the computer and stuff like that, but don't necessarily, have it messed with going in and editing or, or shooting in raw. Are you shooting in raw, Jim? I wear clothes. Yes.
I shoot in raw. And, you're right for, you know, casual kinds of photography. There's I think Windows has a basic their basic photos app, I think, does some editing. And, you know, one of the most powerful things is just cropping, you know, an image down so you're not you get rid of some of the distractions and stuff. But you can do some cropping and some adjusting of, like, height yeah.
Highlights and shadows and, you know, trying to get adjust the exposure a little bit. And that stuff is on your computer. I wouldn't say it's free because you paid for it, but you don't have to pay anymore for it. And there are other free programs out there for doing photos. So, Yeah.
No use. It doesn't pay you to get Lightroom unless you're doing a lot of pictures. And over the summer, I don't know. Well, it's like 13 concerts. So, if I do 500, no.
I don't process all of them, but I I don't know. I use the software to look at them and evaluate them. So, anyway, 500 times 13, That would be 5,000 plus what? 6,500 pictures or something like that. And, yeah, that's a lot of pictures.
And, again, comparing it develop to development and stuff for film, it's not a big deal. The other thing that I think about that I would mind the most if I had to go back to the drugstore routine and send your pictures out to get developed. All you got back in the good old days was these little prints, and they weren't cropped or, you know, just generic run through the machines and develop. So now you can really edit. And just like if you had your darkroom, you can enlarge and you can crop and all that stuff when you're printing them.
But it's so much faster, so much more powerful. It just get a little handful of prints, and then if you wanted back in the day, if you wanted large ones, yes, go back to the drugstore and take the negatives back and order the size prints you want. If you went to a high class photo processing place, you could describe how you wanted it cropped and stuff. That's a far cry from sitting down at the computer, clicking and dragging, and it's done. AF three zed.
Yeah. Yeah. I forgot about cropping. That's, that's that's probably the most the the the easiest thing, right, to make a to take a picture and, like you said, get rid of the noise. So, very cool.
Alright, Jim. This is, it's rather warm today, and, I need to get some liquids. So, good catching up with you, and, we gotta catch up. And, yeah, we you mentioned it at, at breakfast last month about setting up something for lunch. We need to do that as well.
So, we'll talk. So I will, talk with you later, and like I said, could catch it up. 33, Yeah. Thanks, Phil. Thanks for hanging around.
It is good to catch up with you here and talk a little bit. And, yeah, lunch would be good sometime or whatever. And, what else was I gonna say? Comment on something else. Oh, the heat.
Yeah. I I went out and mowed for about an hour and an hour and a half, and this is walking, not riding. And the mower kinda pushes itself, but you still have to manhandle it around. But, anyway, I went out and mowed, and I was sopping wet. And I purposely did it before I got cleaned up this morning.
I figured, well, I'll go mow before it gets too hot. I finished up around noon because I was tinkering with other stuff this morning too. But my point is, yes, it was hot. This is getting beyond what I call pleasant weather, but and not terrible. But I got my shower, and then I vowed I wasn't gonna go out and get all sweaty again.
Oh, the life of the retiree. See you, Phil. Have a good one. Have three zed. Hey, Jim.
Yes. You know, it's just we went from, you know, we went from very comfortable spring like weather to, you know, to summer. You know? So it's just just a shock to the system. You know?
Give it another, give it another few weeks, and and we'll be happy that it's that it's only 83 degrees. So there you go, Jim. Have a good one, and we'll talk with you later. 3, 7 3. 3 is it.